Melbourne teenager Bianca Adler becomes youngest Australian to climb Mount Everest

Bianca Adler, an 18-year-old from Melbourne, reached the 8,849 metre summit of Mount Everest near 6.30am Melbourne time, based on Garmin data and an Instagram post. She climbed with guides Pemba and Ngdu, and her parents Paul and Fiona joined part of the journey. After summiting, she reported feeling really good physically, while also noting that the weather was really bad. She later described the descent as tougher, requiring more caution and careful movement while staying clipped in. She said the route from the South Summit to the summit was more technical than earlier rocky sections, with queues of about a dozen climbers making it difficult to navigate. Nepal’s mountaineering department reported 410 foreign climbers had permits for the spring season, with a US$15,000 fee.

"Bianca Adler reached the 8,849 metre summit at nearly 6.30am Melbourne time, and nearly 2.30am Nepal time, with her guides, Pemba and Ngdu. Adler was accompanied for part of the journey by her parents, Paul and Fiona, who are also keen mountain climbers. In videos posted on a blog set up for Adler's trip, Adler told her father over a radio call that when she reached the summit she was feeling really good but the weather is really bad."

"Adler told her father over a radio call that when she reached the summit she was feeling really good but the weather is really bad. "It's amazing what you've done and so much hard work" her father told her. "Thanks Dad," Adler replied. "I feel really good up here. Physically I feel really great.""

"Later on Adler said it was tougher coming down from the summit, according to a post on her Instagram account, which included a selfie of her at camp 4. "I felt like I needed to be so much more cautious and it was a lot of work clipping around people," she said in a post on the family's site. "Also the part from the South Summit to the summit is really technical at parts much more than the rocks before the South Summit.""

"Adler said there were large queues with about a dozen people at the time, so it was pretty tough getting around them while staying clipped in. Nepal's department of mountaineering reported 410 foreign climbers had been issued with permits to attempt to climb the Mount Everest summit in the spring season, which will end this month. The fee to climb Mount Everest is US$15,000. Adler was resting at camp 4 as of Wednesday afternoon, and plans to start climbing down to camp 2."

Read at www.theguardian.com